Volume 7, Issue 1 Places, People and Trends By David B. Brown © 2013 March 15, 2013 Neil Steede first traveled list found in Yaxchilan and each site. The items might to Mexico in the late 1960s comparing it to the be stela, murals, skeletal where he attended the Uni- Mosiah, Benjamin, Mosiah remains, or any other his- versity of the Americas. kingship that then converts torical information that can There he came in contact to judges, Neil was able to be gleaned to provide a with instructors who pro- find a beginning point for validation of the events that vided him with a unique his Book of Mormon geog- happened in that particular vision of ancient Meso- raphy. From this location, ancient city. In every case american culture. Since he was able to then iden- there is some form of vali- that time Neil has endeav- tify Chinkultic as the City dation that is found to con- ored to piece together the of Nephi, Palenque as firm the hypothesis set fragments of information Bountiful, Calakmul as the forth. that archaeology provides, City of Judea, Tikal as In Tonina we find skele- and what has emerged is a Antiparah, Bonampak as tal remains of people who comprehensive perspective the City of Melek, Tonina were burned, others whose of ancient global culture as Ammonihah, Tenam bones were crushed, and that is far more connected Puente as the City of Jeru- yet others whose bones than ever imagined. Forty salem, LaVenta as the City were marred by cutting years of archaeology and of Desolation, the Rio Bec utensils. This is entirely ten years of intense studies Culture is the Land of An- consistent with the believ- has unveiled some incredi- tionum, Kaminaljuyu as ers who were burned in an ble revelations in Book of the City of Lehi-Nephi, effort to get Alma and Mormon archaeology. and on and on. Amulek to recant their One of the first sections These cities were not preaching, crushed bones of the Mesoamerican puz- just chosen because they for the lawyers and others zle that came into focus “kinda fit,” but it was a who were caught in the was the designation of the process of making tenta- prison collapse when Alma Maya site of Yaxchilan as tive identifications and and Amulek walked free, the city of Zarahemla. then doing extensive re- and finally the cut bones Based on the unique king search on items found at Continued on Page 4 Maya Technology; The Maya Road System By Terry Scott For many years ar- 2000 year old sacbes historical chronicles, chaeologists assumed the (meaning white roads), in journals and reports by Maya road system was 125,000 square miles of observers indicated that isolated to parts of the mountains, rugged hills sightings of the sacbeob Yucatan and dismissed and dense forest has al- (plural for sacbe) have the rumors of a vast road ways been a challenging been have been reported system. Finding 1500- task. But “research of for centuries at various locations across the breadth of the Maya do- main.”1 There was thou- sands of miles of roads Continued on Page 2 HILL CUMORAH EXPEDITION TEAM, INC Inside this issue: Maya Technology Cont. 2 & 3 Places, People and Trends Cont. 4 & 7 Aerial view shows line in the forest Adventures in Archaeology 5 & 6 where Maya road is 2013 Spring Expedition 8 located Cumorah Messenger Maya Technology; The Maya Road System continued The first formal study of a designed for heavy rainfall. They too sacbe came in 1934 when were crowned for water run-off, but Alphonso Villa surveyed they were also built one meter above the 100-kilometer road ground. This allowed bearers and other between Yaxuna and Coba travelers to make good time even dur- for the Carnegie Institute.1 ing the rainy season which would oth- In 1995, and again in erwise have been impossible due to the 2000, archaeo-engineer very muddy ground. James O’Kon re-surveyed Bearers carried goods from one the Yaxuna to Coba sacbe. city to another using a tumpline. The This time the latest ground tumpline was a strap that attached to and aerial survey equip- the load and supported by the head ment was used. Digital allowing them to travel with very Sacbe at Chichen Itza transits, laser levels and heavy loads. A bearer typically carried GPS devices all verified a load of 125 pounds and traveled 25 stretching across the Yucatan during Alphonso Villa’s original findings. km per day.2 A standard size building the classical period. “By comparison, Ancient Roman roads have long stone weighed approximately 125 only 114 miles of paved roads had been been considered ‘the way’ to build a pounds.2 The tumpline was also used in built in the United States before lasting road. Many of their roads still Africa, Nepal and India.2 Notice the 1914.”1 exist today. Mayan roads have also glyph in the upper left of the illustra- The first records of Maya roads were by colonial explorers. In 1562 Bishop Diego de Landa (yes the same evil man who ordered all the codices burned) wrote about a 62 km (kilometer) road from T’hó (Mérida) to Izamal. In 1610 Bernado de Lizana wrote about four roads radiating out from Izamal “which reached to the ends of the land and passed to Ta- basco, Guatemala and Chiapas.”1 In 1688 Diego Lopez wrote about several highways that ended at the eastern shore by Cozumel.1 Over 200 years later John Lloyd Stevens (of the Ste- vens and Catherwood expedition) stood the test of time. Their first roads wrote about a 10 to 12 meter wide date back to 300 BC.1 Roman roads paved road that went from Coba possi- were 6-8 meters wide while Mayan bly all the way to Chichen Itza.1 In roads were 10-12 meters wide and 1883 Désiré Charnay, a French ex- modern 4-lane roads are 12 meters plorer, was recording a portion of the wide. The wide Mayan roads were east-west ‘fabled sacbe’ across most of open to the sky allowing for travel by Yucatan, from Mérida to Puerto More- moon light. Mayan roads were de- los, some 320 km.1 signed for two lanes of traffic going each way with slower traf- fic using the outside lanes. In the 1934 survey, Alphonso Villa, photo- graphed stone mile mark- ers, culverts and ramparts.1 Sound familiar? Roman roads and our modern roads are crowned (higher in the middle) for water run-off with a shoul- der slightly above the ground. Mayan roads were Page 2 CUMORAH MESSENGER Maya Technology; The Maya Road System continued the string line with The sacbe was used to handle the laser level. heavy traffic between cities for trade Another similarity and military support, with mileage to our modern road markers, rest stops and military garri- tion above and the wall mural to the construction is the use of a road roller sons along the way.1 The Maya road lower right on the opposite page. to compact and smooth out the fill. We system linked many cities together and Our modern roads more closely use a large motorized vehicle con- was as heavily used as Roman roads resemble the Roman roads with a base structed of steel. The Maya used a large and our own interstate highways today, layer of crushed rock followed by a stone cylinder rolled by ropes and “and there were many highways cast gravel cement mix. We top our roads pulled with man power. The stone cyl- up, and many roads made, which led with asphalt while the Romans used inder in the photo below is believed to from city to city, and from land to land, large cut stones. Our roads are about be one of these road rollers. Alphonso and from place to place.”3 The more we one foot thick while the Romans were Villa recorded finding a stone cylinder learn about the Maya, the more we re- about one meter thick. The Maya used 4 meters long back in 1934. alize just how advanced they were. large boulders mixed with mortar as Their technology was as advanced as their base, then smaller and smaller any ancient culture. Today we cannot rocks topped with a layer of concrete. build a road that lasts more than 50 The final paving surface was a layer of years. cement. One final thought: The Maya built The Romans and the Maya used roads similar to the Romans, used a basic survey tools that included the water level like many ancient cultures, plumb bob, water level and string line. and used a tumpline like those found in The Roman water level was made from Africa, Nepal and India. Did they inde- wood, while the Maya used stone. To- pendently develop all these, or was day we still use a plumb-bob and level there transoceanic contact; a sharing or with liquid in it, but we have replaced borrowing of ideas? Footnotes 1O’Kon, James A, The Lost Secrets of Maya Technol- ogy: Chapter 9 The Maya Interstate Highway system, The Career Press, Pompton Plains, NJ, 2012. 2O’Kon, James A, The Lost Secrets of Maya Technol- ogy: Chapter 11 Maya On The Move, The Career Press, Pompton Plains, NJ, 2012. 3 Book of Mormon, 3rd Nephi 3:8 VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1 Page 3 Places, People and Trends continued for the slaughter that occurred when the ing used in the Book of Mormon and it is Antiparah—Tikal Lamanites attacked Ammonihah and an illustration of what makes Chinkultic City of Lehi-Nephi—Kaminaljuyu completely destroyed everyone in a sin- the City of Nephi.